Eisley – It's More Than Just Ham

When you tell someone about your upcoming plans for the weekend, you can’t just get away with saying, “I’m going to a concert.” Whoever asked just has to know what concert. Why? If you wanted them to come along, you would have asked, right? It’s not often someone replies with, “The ham?” when you tell them what you’re going to see. Unless that band’s name happens to be Eisley.

Eisley, not to be confused with the popular Pittsburgh brand of ham, Isaly – quite possibly the world’s cheapest brand of meat, second only to hot dogs – is about to release their 3rd studio album. Who cares, right? I cared even less about Rooney, the co-headliners of this tour. I was afraid I’d end up being the oldest person at the concert, Eisley would play a mediocre 5-song set, and I would be left with a two-hour block of pop punk that could make Fall Out Boy seem like Radiohead.

Good thang I’m wrong most of the time! There were a healthy amount of over 21-ers, with the most avid fans being included in that bunch. I heard about this band back in high school, which trust – was a good amount of time ago. These segregated teens were still listening to whatever their parents wanted them to during that time. Us old farts were there to see Eisley. The young’ins were there to see Rooney. I can accept that. Shows you the level of taste popular media develops these days!

I actually discovered Eisley on an MTV blurb that Kurt Loder whored himself out on back in the late 90s/early 00s. I was just starting to get into “indy” music. Little did I know that if you were on MTV during that time, you were anything but indy. Or were you? Because like I said, most people thought I was going to see a concert with a bunch of hams playing guitars. I started out being disappointed that you couldn’t hear the vocals. They played a healthy amount of tunes from their older albums, and I stood there perplexed while I waited for their delicate vocals to shine through all the noise. I think you’ll understand what I mean once you watch the vid. Their songs are light, fluffy and catchy. They’re like a blue sky full of clouds. That’s about as metaphoric as I get without getting nauseous. This music is more for the girls, I suppose.



They held up to their recordings for the most part.  The vocals are definitely more in the foreground, but almost every band I hear sounds 10x more intense live than they do in the studio, so it makes sense.  Some bands thrive on the stage, some on their albums.  It’s a fact of life.  I’m still glad I went.